SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

When an autodie enabled function fails, it generates an autodie::exception object. This can be interrogated to determine further information about the error that occurred.

This document is broken into two sections; those methods that are most useful to the end-developer, and those methods for anyone wishing to subclass or get very familiar with autodie::exception.

Common Methods

These methods are intended to be used in the everyday dealing of exceptions.

The following assume that the error has been copied into a separate scalar:

if ($E = $@) {
...
}

This is not required, but is recommended in case any code is called which may reset or alter $@.

args

my $array_ref = $E->args;

Provides a reference to the arguments passed to the subroutine that died.

function

my $sub = $E->function;

The subroutine (including package) that threw the exception.

file

my $file = $E->file;

The file in which the error occurred (eg, myscript.pl or MyTest.pm).

package

my $package = $E->package;

The package from which the exceptional subroutine was called.

caller

my $caller = $E->caller;

The subroutine that called the exceptional code.

line

my $line = $E->line;

The line in $E->file where the exceptional code was called.

context

my $context = $E->context;

The context in which the subroutine was called by autodie; usually the same as the context in which you called the autodying subroutine. This can be 'list', 'scalar', or undefined (unknown). It will never be 'void', as autodie always captures the return value in one way or another.

For some core functions that always return a scalar value regardless of their context (eg, chown), this may be 'scalar', even if you used a list context.

return

my $return_value = $E->return;

The value(s) returned by the failed subroutine. When the subroutine was called in a list context, this will always be a reference to an array containing the results. When the subroutine was called in a scalar context, this will be the actual scalar returned.

errno

my $errno = $E->errno;

The value of $! at the time when the exception occurred.

NOTE: This method will leave the main autodie::exception class and become part of a role in the future. You should only call errno for exceptions where $! would reasonably have been set on failure.

eval_error

my $old_eval_error = $E->eval_error;

The contents of $@ immediately after autodie triggered an exception. This may be useful when dealing with modules such as Text::Balanced that set (but do not throw) $@ on error.

matches

if ( $e->matches('open') ) { ... }
if ( $e ~~ 'open' ) { ... }

matches is used to determine whether a given exception matches a particular role. On Perl 5.10, using smart-match (~~) with an autodie::exception object will use matches underneath.

An exception is considered to match a string if:

For a string not starting with a colon, the string exactly matches the package and subroutine that threw the exception. For example, MyModule::log. If the string does not contain a package name, CORE:: is assumed.

For a string that does start with a colon, if the subroutine throwing the exception does that behaviour. For example, the CORE::open subroutine does :file, :io and :all.

Advanced methods

The following methods, while usable from anywhere, are primarily intended for developers wishing to subclass autodie::exception, write code that registers custom error messages, or otherwise work closely with the autodie::exception model.

register

autodie::exception->register( 'CORE::open' => \&mysub );

The register method allows for the registration of a message handler for a given subroutine. The full subroutine name including the package should be used.

Registered message handlers will receive the autodie::exception object as the first parameter.

add_file_and_line

say "Problem occurred",$@->add_file_and_line;

Returns the string at %s line %d, where %s is replaced with the filename, and %d is replaced with the line number.

Primarily intended for use by format handlers.

stringify

say "The error was: ",$@->stringify;

Formats the error as a human readable string. Usually there's no reason to call this directly, as it is used automatically if an autodie::exception object is ever used as a string.

Child classes can override this method to change how they're stringified.

format_default

my $error_string = $E->format_default;

This produces the default error string for the given exception, without using any registered message handlers. It is primarily intended to be called from a message handler when they have been passed an exception they don't want to format.

Child classes can override this method to change how default messages are formatted.

new

Creates a new autodie::exception object. Normally called directly from an autodying function. The function argument is required, its the function we were trying to call that generated the exception. The args parameter is optional.

The errno value is optional. In versions of autodie::exception 1.99 and earlier the code would try to automatically use the current value of $!, but this was unreliable and is no longer supported.

Atrributes such as package, file, and caller are determined automatically, and cannot be specified.